Many career paths exist in the civil engineering profession. Here is one of those paths. Following the award of the BSCE degree, the graduate engineer assumes an entry-level position with one of the organizations listed above. The engineer is supervised by a licensed civil engineer and works with several other civil engineers. The engineer's tasks may include collection of data, basic calculations, project layout, field inspection of construction projects, participation in the design process, and preparation of drawings and specifications. After four years of work at this level, the engineer is eligible to take the Professional Engineer's examination, assuming the Fundamentals of Engineering examination was passed while completing the BSCE degree. When this second examination is successfully completed, the engineer becomes a licensed (some say "registered") professional engineer. After becoming licensed, the engineer is usually given more design and owner and public contact responsibility. As the engineer's experience becomes broader and deeper, the level of these responsibilities increases. Some civil engineers eventually open their own private practice while others stay within larger organizations and continue to move to higher levels of management responsibility.

To learn more about civil employment categories and salaries, visit the recommended salaries page at the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) web site at http://www.nspe.org/. You will probably enjoy several pages at this web site.

To learn more about employment opportunities in civil engineering explore the UC Denver Career Center.